I SAW a lady on TV last night complaining that her travelling community were made to feel unwelcome wherever they stopped.

She said local people eyed them with suspicion and travellers' children were isolated from other local kids.

She made travellers sound like innocent victims of an uncaring society.

I almost felt sorry for her until I remembered the damage and desecration done to a local park when travellers camped outside my office - the filth, broken glass and debris left behind when travellers were evicted from a Poynton field.

I wasn't surprised therefore when travellers in Wilmslow left the Jim Evison playing fields strewn with old tyres, household rubbish and excrement, for while the Government is calling for more tolerance to the travelling fraternity, travellers rarely show any sign of civic responsibility whatsoever.

I understand the clean up of these playing fields is likely to take days and an estimated 40 wagon loads of filth and rubbish must be removed leaving local tax payers to foot the bill.

Government diktats are never going to win the hearts and minds of residents as long as travellers show not the slightest regard for their neighbours.

All too often the burden of goodwill is heaped upon the law abiding, while the lawless are encouraged to feel persecuted.

It's not only unfashionable to suggest travellers might help themselves by showing more consideration, it offends the sensitivities of the politically correct.

No lesser person than deputy PM John Prescott is upholding the right of travellers to flout planning laws and set up camp wherever they please.

Of course, John Prescott doesn't live next to the Jim Evison playing fields.